Those who expressed concern about Google’s acquisition of Nest may have have been right: the company has told the Securities and Exchange Commission that it may choose to serve ads on “refrigerators, car dashboards, thermostats, glasses, and watches, to name just a few possibilities.”

You are the product with this creepy company.

Genes

AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Google is becoming a parody of itself!

Larry Davis

Jesus Christ. If they do that they will have ruined a really nice product.

http://wenzelmassag.de unknwntrr

Very amusing Imagine Apple selling ads in CarPlay… LOL have Siri read you push-notification ads while you drive. Am I glad Apple is not Google.

http://twitter.com/matthewwanderer Matthew

Riddle me this: How many more of these shenanigans can Google pull before some of it sticks? Crazy, crazy, crazy.

http://www.laugh-eat.com/ kyron

note that google already does serve ads in cars — via their Waze app that is partnered w/ Pioneer’s AppRadio in-dash 6″ touchscreen head unit. i was stunned when getting directions somewhere local when it popped up a suggested way point ad — to a hotel nearby. i had to dick around the dash to dismiss it.

WTF…how is that not evil? do i have to get into a car accident for it to be?

Mother Hydra

I’d like to see them try and get past my firewall. heh.

Blah

Dumb article. There is proof of nothing and no mention of Nest. Its a no brainer that google would want to serve ads in any of these places but it doesn’t mean that your thermostat is going to start talking.

matthewmaurice

Google products don’t “talk”, they ‘listen’-to everything you do online. The insidiousness of Google Nest is that it’s listening to what you’re doing offline in your house. Combine that information with what Google learns from your searches, Gmail, Hangouts, photos, and, literally, everything you do with an Android device and Google can quite lucratively pimp you out to any advertiser willing to pay for your demographic/lifestyle (hence their statement to the SEC).

Repeat after me, folks: Google is NOT a technology company, it’s an advertising sales company.

http://www.laugh-eat.com/ kyron

no mention of Nest.

oh, so what other thermostats does google sell? you know, since they specifically mentioned ads on thermostats?

Herding_sheep

Its a shame. They made an excellent product with a ton of potential into something people are creeped out by.

invinciblegod

You know you don’t actually have to lie to get the point across right? The article states that they may not that they are actually doing it. If you want to be a horrible tabloid be my guest but I thought you were better than that. Obviously, I’m wrong.

GadgetGav

Misleading headlines all around especially from The Loop. Changing “could start” to “to start” is not accurate. Yes, I’m sure it will happen in time – and we all expected that from when they bought Nest, but that’s not what they’re saying here. They’re making a case against splitting out “mobile” devices in their reporting because the definition of mobile could change. They actually said “We expect the definition of “mobile” to continue to evolve as more and more “smart” devices gain traction in the market. For example, a few years from now, we and other companies could be serving ads and other content on refrigerators, car dashboards, thermostats, glasses, and watches, to name just a few possibilities.”

It would make more sense for this particular story to point out that their argument makes very little sense. Refrigerators and thermostats can hardly be considered “mobile”…

dreyfus2

Well, FWIW, while these devices are not mobile, the apps used to monitor or control them might be.

The bigger problem here is not really seeing ads on a thermostat (who is looking at a thermostat anyhow?), but the sheer mass of devices used to analyze our behavior. I somehow expect my computer or smartphone to do that to some extent, and I can adjust to that, even choose which apps etc. will be allowed to run on them etc. Home appliances are closed systems, I can’t really influence what they do. And a thermostat will certainly “know” when I am at home, how often I am at home, how often I crawl in at 3 am… I am not usually paranoid, but this is getting creepy.

Sigivald

“To start”? No.

Defensive language in an SEC filing to make a case with the SEC that they shouldn’t have to report mobile income separately, “because mobile means so many things it’s meaningless as a category”, more or less.

A “we could” is not a “we are” – and updated, there, they deny any plan to ever do so on the Nest.

Google are jerks, but this is not Revealing Their Wicked Plan To Show Ads On Your Nest.

It’s their plan to convince the SEC they can report mobile income numbers not broken out, as I understand the link provided.

Stephen Shankland

I note that Nest CEO Tony Fadell has denied that Nest will show ads.

@eugeneyk @theloop Google-”Nest, which we acquired after the filing,does not have an ads-based model and has never had any such plans.”

Tony Fadell also said Nest wouldn’t share user details with 3rd-parties and that turned out to be complete bollocks about a week after Google sucked them up,

“has never had any such plans.” – note the past tense here. Plans change all the time. Especially if Google tells them to.

http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

This was a statement made prior to buying Nest and is not a planned action.

http://www.laugh-eat.com/ kyron

it’s a “may”, exactly has they said. you simply dont know whether they will or not. you cant.

http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

Yep. No one knows, including you and others boasting evilness, creepiness, etc for something you all knee-jerk responded too that turned out to be something other than what was reported; reading is fundamental.